A huge benefit in Australia (at least, for now), is the healthcare and education system. You can come out of university with no overheads and free healthcare. All you need is rent, pizza and hosting costs and you can build a startup. I honestly think a lot of the barriers in the article are overstated. The biggest problem is the lack of economy of scale here, there is just not much of a market to test your ideas in locally and a lot of regulation and legal barriers (eg: asinine copyright laws, no fair use, etc.) that make it much harder.
You may incur a substantial liability or even worse be charged with fraud if you are actually working full time (on your startup) and at the same time claim unemployment benefits. I like Australia's social welfare safety net and I think it helps startups to have it, but I wouldn't recommend it be abused to start a company.
If Abbott isn't kicked out soon, Australia is going to become a much, much worse place. (for many reasons, not just the above) I had tears in my eyes when my parents told me of his plans to charge University and healthcare fees.
I used to be proud to be Australian, I hope I can be in the future.
Almost. There are in fact people in the world who do not have $7 and who once could walk into a clinic but will have to essentially beg their doctor to give them service for free. It's a tiny crack but if you want to apply the word "universal" a tiny crack is as good as a chasm.
